Switzerland: UN rules forcible sterilizations of women in Peru ‘crime against humanity’

Accordinf to the United Nations women’s rights committe, Switzerland: UN rules forcible sterilizations of women in Peru ‘crime against humanity”the policy of forced sterilisation in Peru, which took place during the 1990s’, amounted to sex-based violence and intersectional discrimination, particularly against Indigenous, rural, and economically disadvantaged women.”

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) published its Decision after reviewing a joint complaint filed by five victims who were forcibly sterilised between 1996 and 1997 as part of a State-led birth control policy in Peru.

“The victims described a consistent pattern of being coerced, pressured, or deceived into undergoing sterilisations at clinics lacking proper infrastructure or trained personnel,” Committee member Leticia Bonifaz said.

“The procedures were carried out without informed consent from these victims, with some of them, especially those from remote areas, unable to read and speak Spanish, or fully understand the nature of the procedure.”

A UN committee has urged Peru to compensate women who were forcibly sterilised in the 1990s, ruling that the state policy could constitute a “crime against humanity”.

Forced sterilisation was part of a programme implemented by Peru’s then president Alberto Fujimori during the final four years before he left office in 2000 after a decade in power.

The United Nations committee on the elimination of discrimination against women said hundreds of thousands of people had been affected. The 23-member committee issued its finding after reviewing a joint complaint filed by five victims who were forcibly sterilised between 1996 and 1997.

“The victims claimed that the forced sterilisations they underwent had severe and permanent consequences for their physical and mental health,” it said in a statement.

The experts denounced Peru’s failure to properly investigate the violations and compensate the victims, urging the country to put in place a “comprehensive reparation programme for victims”.

The women were undergoing sterilisations at clinics lacking proper infrastructure or trained personnel”, committee member Leticia Bonifaz said in the statement.

She called it a “systematic and generalised attack against rural and Indigenous women”, carried out without their full understanding or consent.

The committee described the case of one victim from Pichgas in central Peru who said she was stopped on the street by medical practitioners in October 1996.

The woman, who said she was illiterate and never signed anything, was put to sleep and when she woke up, nurses told her: “You won’t be having children now, we’ve cured you,” the statement said.

While Peru had argued the sterilisation programme was part of a broader reproductive health policy, with procedures carried out on both men and women, the experts noted that 25,000 men were forcibly sterilised, compared with over 300,000 women.

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